Saturday, June 23, 2007

Our first glacier

It rained all night and was still raining this morning when we got up. At least the low clouds and smoke were gone so we could see the mountains around us. We drove south toward Anchorage but turned east toward Valdez when we hit Palmer. We made a lunch stop at a McDonalds (the kids were so excited) and shopped for groceries at the Fred Meyer across the street. The rain had finally stopped but still no sunshine.


The road we are on is called the Glen Highway and passes our first glacier, the Matanuska Glacier. We could only take pictures from across the river at the view point.


They also had a campground there but our rig was too big to fit in any of the sites. We stopped for the night at an RV park just a few miles down the road where we hiked a short trail to another viewing spot. We will get closer to glaciers later on.


Late this afternoon we finally saw the sun for the first time in two days but just briefly. I realize that the rain is what makes everything here so green, but it sure looks prettier when the sun is shining on it.


Nana is feeling better today and Deidra is able to walk with only a small limp. She still has trouble getting into and out of the truck and is not up to long walks unless it is related to shopping.


We did not go far today and that is just fine. Five hours or so is plenty. We have our house with us so we just stop wherever we are when we feel like it. It is a nice way to travel.

4 comments:

  1. Are you heading to Valdez? Then what...drive back, or ferry across the Sound?

    There's an abandoned mine somewhere around Palmer that the Holsingers took me to on my first or second trip back in 97 or 98.

    Glad to hear the women are doing better.

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  2. Yes, we are just heading down to Valdez and back. Then out on the Kenai for a few days before we head down to Phoenix.

    This part of our summer is really just to show the kids as much of the variety of Alaska as we can in the short time we have without really pushing ourselves. When we get back from Phoenix Dianna and I will adopt a much slower pace and spend time exploring each area we are in.

    The ferry? You must be kidding. Do you know how much it would cost for my 65 foot rig? Diesel fuel is much cheaper. I did a quick check. The price would range from $350 to $980, depending on departure date and time.

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  3. So for $350 your rig will go, what, 100 miles? ;-)

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  4. Eight mpg and diesel is probably at least $3.00/gal so that would be 350/3.00*8 or about 930 miles.

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